Madagascar

The Land Where Evolution Ran Wild

For 65 million years, Madagascar was lost to the world, isolated, undiscovered, and untouched by humans. Left to its own devices it became a hotbed of evolution, resulting in the greatest concentration of unique creatures anywhere on the planet. More than 80% of Madagascar's animals and plants are found nowhere else on Earth. Recognized as one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots.

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Madagascar. An absolutely impossible island, one of the world's largest, posited
off the eastern shores of Africa, where evolution and mother nature have run amuck to produce plants and animals so unique they could easily make the island a stand in for an off-planet set in a science-fiction movie. Strange baobab trees with swollen trunks that allow them to store water over the dry periods; lemurs that think they're monkeys and run upright just like you and I; needle sharp eroded limestone pinnacles that make travel well neigh impossible.
And in true BBC fashion, the photography is painfully beautiful. And then, of course, anything crafted by David Attenborough, the many who just about invented the genre natural science, is going to be edited and narrated first-class.
Just wonderful.

As always, David Attenborough does a fabulous job bring the viewer to whatever location he is filming in and gives all kinds of great info on the animals & nature in general!

theorbys
Aug 12, 2012

5 stars because it is a long beautifully photographed look at the unique ecosystem of this giant island. It IS long, but so much the better. It is divided into segments and you can stop watching whenever you like. Frankly it could have been better, but it is plenty good enough if this is what you are interested in.

I enjoyed watching this movie about Madagascar... Next time I need to consider watching some of these with my kids as my youngest was much disappointed and kept asking where the zebra was. Each episode focuses a certain amount of time on each "ecosystem" from wet to arid to mountainous. The bonus segment on the giant egg, as mentioned below, was really good. But the one about the lemurs was, well, boring. Which is essentially what this science is about - a whole lot of watching the minutia of various animal groups to try and piece together behaviour. Makes you appreciate their work, if nothing else.

The wildlife and scenery is often spectacular but was it really necessary to drag it over four episodes? We learn that there are eighty species of lemur ... and then travel around Madagascar to see each one (it seems). The British seem to have a "thing" about mating beasts. I found myself skipping ahead with the remote control ... and then I just said "enough" and turned it off.

The bonus section on the giant egg is really worth watching, at least the first half-hour of that segment.
The photography is outstanding, the pace a bit slow, and the narrator is physically akward at times and mumbles more when he isn't narrating, but this is an incredibly in-depth look at Madagascar at the present day, and over time.